Baked Pears with Marshmallows

Warm summer evenings are starting to arrive! Despite the ongoing craziness I am trying to stay positive. Cooking and baking help me keep my sanity although I wish I could share them more. I miss bringing in cookies each week to work. (Even if my co-workers didn't provide me feedback even though I asked many times) Right now, I still don't feel like doing any actual baking but I wanted to get something in. Something a little bit different but not too weird. I still had to get Dylan to eat it. For whatever reason this recipe called out to me. It looked easy and bright and summery! It is from the 1953 edition of The Modern Family Cook Book by Meta Given.

Not a lot to this. Just had to get a large can of pears and a lemon.

I love pears. They smell amazing and taste even better! I didn't have regular-sized marshmallows but I figured that mini-marshmallows would work just as well. The lemons were as thin as I could get them without pulling out the mandolin. I like my mandolin but it always takes me half a fruit or veg to get the hang of it.

All the pears didn't fit quite fit into my lovely oval vintage baking dish but that's okay. I ate the extras. Luckily there was more cinnamon sugar mix than I thought. Probably for those pears I ate. No regrets!

Some of the lemon slices had to be doubled up since my paper thin slicing stinks. I probably should have brought out the mandolin...

According to my math: 1 regular marshmallow = 4 mini-marshmallows. It looks really pretty all put together! 

After 5 minutes, the marshmallows were not even close to being browned. I ended up leaving them in for over 10 minutes to get this delicate browning. I should confess that the marshmallows were a bit old but still tasted good. I don't know if that affected their toasting.

My kitchen smells like baked apples! So yummy!!

It was such a nice afternoon that we had decided to have snacks on the front porch. The lemons added a light flavor to the pears, not enough to overwhelm but every now and then you get a burst of citrus. The marshmallows has a nice little crunch to them that I enjoyed a lot. I found the lemon rind too thick to eat but Dylan powered through one. I would probably use Meyer lemons next time so you can just eat everything. It was a bit of a pain to take the lemon off and make sure you kept the marshmallows on but maybe leave a little bit of the flesh of the lemon. Such problems! These tasted amazing good. Almost like baked apples but the lemon added a touch of tang to it. Light enough for the summer. Even Dylan enjoyed them. They looked very pretty on a plate. I think they would look even prettier with the large marshmallows that are in different shapes.

My Rating: Delicious and unique looking. I would make again for a summer dinner party.

Dylan's Rating: "Nice. Tastes almost like baked apples. I like them."